Roadtrip
by mamuzelkc
Summary: K-L-EO enjoyed selling wares in Goodneighbor. She also loved destroying things. She, did not, however, intend under any circumstances to destroy Goodneighbor. Rated T for extreme violence and adult themes. May be smut, published separate from this work. Who knows? The story is young!
1. Sensory Overload

"Yknow, for a woman, you're awfully...electronic."

This earned a dangerous whirring of clawed hands and an angry voice from the assaultron behind the counter.

"Ain't 'woman' enough for you, baby? I suggest you buy something or I might be tempted to test out some product...on you..." She almost hissed that last part. Wait, no. She literally hissed that last part, as an exhaust port let off the steam her words created. The lackey in front of her counter grimly winced and backed off.

"Yeah, yeah, I got you!" Shivering visibly, he left the storefront. A sigh could be heard from nearby. It was quiet enough today any normal person could have heard it, but the previously mentioned owner of this store would have heard it regardless. Her sensors were always kept in perfect condition, allowing her ample opportunity to catch even the smallest of sounds and movements.

"You can't keep doin' this K-L-EO. You're gonna run off all your business, sexy robot that you are or not." A raspy voice followed the sigh with exhasperation. "Even a robot with an arsenal full of weapons has to make a living, after all!" The voice came from the next storefront over, just to the right, actually. A lithe ghoul, aged 200 years and running by the name Daisy kept this shop. She mocked the assaultron knowing full well K-L-EO would never take it personally. They were partners in business advertisement. K-L-EO sold dangerous weapons and fully capable armor. Daisy sold the junk needed to tweak it. It was a good setup.

The latter made her way around to the former's counter. "It's time to close up shop, isn't it?" K-L-EO checked her internal sun gauge and nodded a confirmation. Daisy and K-L-EO, ofcourse, never truly locked up shop, knowing the chem-addled would probably want their midnight snacks, so they had another great setup. Daisy would take her nightly rest, and K-L-EO would watch her store front. In return, Daisy shared all the electronics that K-L-EO ever needed, "free" of charge.

Were they of the same flesh, one might have called them sisters, the way they worked in unison so beautifully.

* * *

"Ah~! Just another beautiful day in good ol' Goodneighbor!" Another, deeper raspy voice croaked out like rocks rolling across pavement.

"Morning, mayor. I see you came for your sweetrolls and jet?" K-L-EO voiced almost emotionlessly. If only it weren't for her sultry tone, one would have thought she were a mindless bot with no personality. "A little late, aren't you? It's already zero-three-and-twenty-two hours."

"Aw, c'mon K-L-EO, you gotta gimme a break here! I couldn't deny my people what they wanted, and what that drifter wanted was a little bit of tender ghou-"

"Your order, Hancock." She interrupted swiftly, placing two sweetrolls and four canisters of jet on the counter.

The ghoul frowned and tossed 26 bottlecaps on the counter. K-L-EO felt an odd twinge as he did so. Something was familiar about that twinge. Huh, she'd have to ask for a newer circuitboard when Daisy awoke at zero-six-hundred hours. "Have a great day, mayor. I hope noone stabs you for those." She meant well, but it always came out harsh. Hancock was used to that long ago.

She watched him closely as his red duster flowed behind him almost pompously before disappearing altogether. She felt the twinge again. A slightly different one, mind you, but one all the same that she hadn't felt in a while. So long, in fact, she had purged the feeling from her sensor readings. Robot forgetfulness, and all that. She couldn't place it, though she knew she should have been able to. She would deal with it when Daisy awoke. Hoping against hope that it wouldn't have to come to...that...she returned to her own counter as quietly as a 300 pound robot could.

* * *

Daisy watched her partner carefully, frowning, although she had been reassured there was nothing to worry over. K-L-EO had sounded as anxious as she ever could when she came up to dutifully awaken Daisy at 6 a.m. It had been easy identifying a loose wire when she sat the robot down to examine her. She was no robotics expert, so K-L-EO had precautiously explained her basic circuitry to the woman perched carefully behind her at the time. It appeared to be nothing a soldering gun and some silver couldn't fix. However, as the day progressed, the ghoul watched her friend twitch more often; jump more often; whirl more often. Whirling was not a good thing. Ever.

"Listen, baby, you'd better buy something soon. I don't have all day." If the robot could smirk, Daisy was sure a poignant smile would've stretched across her face at that moment.

And then it all happened so fast. It happened and she couldn't do anything to stop it.

Let's see, first - Daisy tried to note over the explosions and screaming - there was that damned drifter from before. He had already insulted K-L-EO the previous day, and clearly he was stupid enough to come back and do it again. That wasn't the problem. The problem was K-L-EO's reaction to being told she was less than filth, less than a synth. She wasn't 'woman' enough to stop herself from beaming him straight in the face.

'Beaming' has a different meaning to assaultrons than it does to everyone else. Beaming to regular people meant adding a new and improved fleshy feature (usually a fist) to someone's face, giving them a facial makeover. It's all fun and dandy because you can walk away from it.

Daisy felt tears slip down her face as she struggled to breathe, having been trapped under a support beam from the collapsed building. A fire was spreading quickly through the decimated town. She tried hard to recollect.

First it was a high keening sound, which reverberated uncomfortably with a low tone. It was sickeningly familiar. She had just enough time to blink and turn her head, a brightish orange light catching her eye, before she watched as K-L-EO beamed the drifter in the face. It was clean, it was disgusting, it was beautiful. The headless body dropped to the floor with a thump. More thumps followed with metallic clanking and dangerous whirring. K-L-EO was on the move, arms at her side in a jogging stance as she bolted like lightning, striking another – innocent – drifter in the side. He didn't stand a chance as her clawed hand wrapped around his arm, pulling it sharply from its socket and with a wet shlopping sound, the rest of his body.

She was scared. She screamed, but couldn't even hear herself over the sound of sudden gunfire and the cries of Goodneighbor. Oh, god, what did they do to deserve this misfortune? The house suddenly came down with a crash as K-L-EO accidentally struck it attempting to hit one of the guards. Daisy didn't have time to register the cracking of brick and wood before she leapt for freedom, only to fall short, with a pillar of wood above her body, trapping her in place. It was literal hell. She cried for help before she stopped being able to breathe and passed out.

* * *

She didn't know how long she was out, but a red arm was desperately pulling her frail body from the rubble. The town was on fire, the walls down. She could hear the sound of K-L-EO shooting and punching at anything and everything.

"Are we dead? Is this hell?" She croaked out.

"No, but if you know how to shut her down you'd better help me do it now or we will be." So it was Hancock carrying her? She hadn't even tried to look, too bruised and beaten to bother lifting her aching head.

"There's a port on the back side of her head...loose wire...drive behind it...pull the wire and...get the drive..." She slipped back to unconsciousness, an odd comfort reaching her as she was able to catch her breath. Everything hurt...everything hurt so badly...and her heart ached.

* * *

"If I didn't love you, I woulda killed ya long ago, fuckin' dickwad." A girl bounded over soundlessly, save for her cheery pacific-southern voice. "I hope you end up dead so I don't cross mah mohral bound'ries first. Dick." She laid it on thick that time, showing her humorous attitude on the current situation.

The receiver of her attention smiled a toothy smile at her. His ruined face betrayed his happiness at her approving disapproval. "It was your idea Ari!" He hung upside limply from a cord. It streched upward to the top of an old receiving tower. "'Oh, it'll be fine, just get on there, get the copper coil, come back down, enne bee dee!' Yeah, no big deal, whatever! I coulda died!" He mocked her, but then screamed as she shot at him. Mind you, he was dangling 20 feet above her.

"Kay, so ya don't mind if I take a couple pot-shots, do ya?" She smiled and winked at him. Then, she aimed once again and almost fired when a looming green figure appeared behind her.

"Arianna, get him down."

"You get him down, he's the one who got himself stuck there! I would've gotten shocked outta my mind, and he can take the radiation. You're simply too big, Jon-puh-jo." She grinned and stood triumphant before she was lifted and chucked at the dangling ghoul. She barely managed to clasp onto his supporting cord before she was, too, dangling 20 feet above the ground.

"Sure, I'll get him down." She angrily huffed before working a knife out of her pocket and dragging it across the cord. They both gasped, the ghoul screaming as they dropped into muscular arms. The arms of a super-mutant, actually. "Thanks for nothing, Jonathan! Asshole..." She squirmed and jumped out of his arms.

The super mutant, Jonathan, dropped the tied company onto the ground and ripped the cording from his body. "You okay, Dylon?"

"Yeah, although I think I may have shat myself a little."

"Two-hundred years and you still don't have that potty-mouth under control?" The ghoul glared as the girl as she bounded around, looking for scraps that may have fallen from the tower. She tied her red hair back and prodded at the rubble, blue eyes beaming with curiosity, Finally, she picked up a neatly green coil from a pile of metal. "Check it, guys, I gots somethin' gooooood~!" She sang delightfully as she produced it for them to see.

"Awesome, should be able to afford that devil now. That was the final piece we needed to open her up." Jonathan noted in a deep grumbling voice. He rubbed his balded head thoughtfully and led the group through the lush greenery they had come from. The journey back was gonna be a bitch, especially with the raiders coming down from the north to try and take over the area. Bastards kept razing the little green left in the US after the Great War.

"Uhm, didn't we also need an assaultron circuitboard...?" A meek voiced crooned behind him.

Dammit, Dylon.


	2. Robot Overload

"C'mon Danny, it was ONE STORY! And the Commonwealth NEEDS the press! It's a basic human right!"

"Pipes, ya gonna get yaself killed one'a these days wrintin' stories the mayah doesn't like." A voice crackled through a speaker to a persistent girl facing it.

"Can't you let me back in just for a moment?! If you're gonna kick me out, do it with some class and lemme get my stuff!" She pleaded with a note of anger.

"No, Piper, the boss wouldn' be too happy with me. He's already unhappy with you." It crackled through to her again.

She flipped her black hair and huffed. There wasn't much she could do but sit and wait until the mayor thought she had "learned her lesson". The super mutants would probably detect her soon if she stayed out any- woah! Guess she was done with her time? The giant metal door creaked open with loud banging and screeches. She leapt up with joy. "I knew it! You were on my side the whole time, D- Nicky?"

A synth in a noir-film-reminiscent duster and fedora stood before her with a gentle smile. "Hey, doll. Havin' some issues with the guard?"

"Yeah, ol' Danny-boy is bein' a real pain." She glared behind the synth and stuck her tongue out.

Danny glared back. "You're lucky Valentine's vouching for you. Again."

She smiled wide and pranced in. "Thanks, Nicky! You're the real 'doll' here!" He could only laugh and sweep past her into the open.

It was always somewhat euphoric for him to leave the safety of Diamond City. Out here was the real mystery. The Commonwealth lended a never-ending supply of new cases. Today was no different. Except that it was. The guard had heard screaming and seen flashes of orange light. It was coming from a sadly familiar direction and Nick Valentine was already piecing together what that meant for their neighbors in Goodneighbor. As screwed up as that town was, they didn't deserve a fate as bad as an assaultron attack.

He brushed off the climbing anxiety that something irreversible may have happened and plunged headfirst into the shadows of the looming dilapidated buildings.

* * *

Piper sat at her printing press staring into its gears and inner workings longer than she probably should have. It was hopeless. The girl may never run again. Not with the way the generator was. She hadn't had a good story in months and the royalties from her last paper had only gotten them enough for food and water. Not extra parts. Not that it mattered anyway, noone but Takahashi and Myrna with her Mr. Handy would sell to her and her sister. Mostly because of her talk of synths and the Institution.

"Told ya." Her sister was playing with an old toy car she had found in the trash from the upper stands. "Shoulda listened when we had money."

"Bah...it's easily fixable!" Piper cheerily replied. She wasn't too sure of her words. She backed away from the machine and sighed. This would probably mean the end of her business for a little while. She would have to venture the wasteland for caps...and junk.

A knock on their door interrupted her thoughts. "Yeah?" She called out, and the knocker entered.

"Hey, got a minute?" Ellie Perkins, Valentine's assistant, came in. "Got a kinda big story you might be interested in."

"That'd be great," she sighed, "if our generator hadn't taken a huge dump."

"Oh, well that's terrible!" She frowned deeply, but then smiled. "How about this? I'll get you whatever you need to fix it up, and we'll just call it even for your help with the molerats last week, yeah?"

Piper bit her bottom lip thoughtfully. It was a good deal, but she had already been saved by Nick almost an hour ago at the gate. Her better judgment won out and she finally puffed. "Yeah, that'd be great, if Valentine hadn't already saved my hide earlier. Had a bit of trouble coming in, but he vouched for me. It's probably noted as repayment for the molerats." She smiled at Ellie, who chuckled and gestured to the printing press.

"It's fine, hun. I'll just mark it as a favor to ask for later, okay?" She smiled and sat down on Piper's couch, Nat – having finished with her playtime – immediately ran over and curled up next to her. She admired Ellie for her resolve as Nick's assistant. It put her in a dangerous position. It was cool. She was cool.

"So what's what with this 'big story'?" Piper smirked. There was always something big at the Valentine agency. She loved the juicy gossip and endless stories. Most were classified, but Ellie always recognized when a good one came up. With her discretion, she sort of decided what was and was not safe for Piper to print without putting her family at risk. This was gonna be a good one, Piper thought decidedly. She got so few of those these days.

* * *

A quick check over her body and Daisy sighed in relief. No damage other than scrapes, bruises, and a broken rib. She had woken up, finally, inside a damp shack that smelled of mold. They must be in a swamp of some sort. "Han-" She coughed violently and wheezed in pain. Yelling (or even loud talking) was not an option. She took shallow, slow breaths to keep from wincing in pain from simply breathing. Another check of her surroundings, and she decided moving could be fine. She got up from the mattress she had been lain on and shucked off the red coat that had covered her.

Hancock loved that coat, so she was sure to fold it neatly before stepping out of the shack. He must be around here somewhere...

She spotted him before he spotted her. She smiled and lifted her unoccupied arm to great him. His black eyes glinted in the morning sun when he noticed her. He was bent over a wheelbarrow with-

"Oh my god, K-L-EO?!" She thought she dreamed the whole thing – that it had been caused by her accidentally inhaling some drug or gas or something. No, there K-L-EO was, shut down and laying limply in a dirty, rusty green wheelbarrow. "How...what happened?" She felt tears sting her eyes and run down her torn cheeks.

"When you passed out, I set you under a sheet of metal in case I failed. I did what you said. Sure enough, there was a wire in the back of her head that was sticking out. She was tough to dodge around and it took every ounce of strength I had just to reach it. Pulled my damn arm out of the socket..." He touched his shoulder and winced, hissing at the pain the slight pressure caused. "Tried to rip my arm off, but I got her...Dunno what you meant about a 'drive' though." He gestured to the robot and allowed Daisy to bend over her, inspecting carefully.

"How'd you get her in the wheelbarrow?"

"Easy, actually, when she shut down, she tipped over. I thought I had failed, but I saw a little flashing red light on the back side of her head. I guess she's in stand-by mode? Anyway, I found the wheelbarrow in Bobbi's old place. It hadn't collapsed yet so getting the wheelbarrow out was easy enough. I tipped the wheelbarrow over at the bottom of the pile of rubble we were on, then rolled her into it. Kinda hard to lift and roll the damn thing. Real hard whenyour shoulder's killin you from setting your fuckin' arm back in it's socket." He grit his teeth and took a shaky breath. "Surprised you and me survived. I watched her...I watched her maim people she sold guns to just the day before..." He scoffed lightly and turned back to Daisy.

She shakily handed him it coat and wrung her hands. "So where are we now?"

"Ruins just outside'a Boston. I wanted to find Valentine and get his opinion on all of this, but I didn't wanna leave a maybe-not-deactivated assaultron alone with a helpless old lady." He chuckled dryly when Daisy knocked his arm.

"Aint *that* old, ass." She sat down and rubbed her face. "So...what do you wanna do now that this little old lady is up?" She smiled wryly.

"I guess we take this giant scary robot to a smaller robot?" He offered. They sat next to each other, enjoying being alive and silently mourning their destroyed town – no – home for a while. It was starting to get dark when they got up and moving again. They would be fine navigating in the dark, but the problem didn't lie in the darkness. It lied in how they would enter anti-ghoul Diamond City to find Valentine dragging a heavy ass assaultron with them.


	3. Brotherly Overload

A bustling market lined the street, 100 feet long, 20 feet wide. Vendor stalls stood at both sides, and islands of merchandise with throngs of people chattering about floated in the middle. The sea was beautiful, but the smell made Jonathan sick. Humans and their damned economy of bottlecaps and accessories. Pitiful.

"What if I told you, you could have it at only half the price?" A merchant was tempting Arianna with a shoddy-looking pistol. She seemed captivated with it. Typical Ari. Here it comes...

"What if I told you, good sir," She dazzled him with a smile, "that I could get that gun off of any old raider out here, and that you're a swindler, and I will kill you if you ever speak to me again?" She giggled and trounced down the street, trying to spot the right booth. The previous vendor looked offended, probably not understanding the full power behind the 5'4" ball of energy. Jonathan rolled his dark eyes and shuffled forward behind her. Dylon clung to his back, having accepted by now that if he didn't, he would be crushed by the sea of people otherwise. Finally she squealed and almost danced to – no, there it was, a little jig. She literally danced up to a shabby booth blocking a doorway. In this booth sat an old man. Probably in his fifties or so. He smiled, a toothless smile. Too many chems would do that to ya.

"Got it, Phoenix?" The man asked her as she dug through her messenger bag.

"Yes, yes, YES!" She pulled the green copper coil and held it out to the man. He took it gingerly and inspected it.

"Fair condition...didn't get it from that old military outpost did you? Heard all the stuff in there is fake. A trap set up to surprise pretty girls like yourself." He moaned out the words like his throat was too dry to speak up. Regardless, he continued, "Went where I told you?"

"Yissiree! Fenrir got a little tied up in the job, but we got it down eventually." She beamed at him and held out her hand. "Now, the key, please~!" She shivered, excited.

"Ah-ah-ah...you know the rules. All the pieces of payment before collection of product-"

"-Or you don't get to have the full experience." Dylon piped up from over Jonathan's hulking shoulder. "It's alright Gust, we got it." He detached himself from the super mutant and slunk to the front of the pack. The girl and mutant body-blocked the crowd from sweeping the lanky boy into the masses with them. He slid up the front of his leather armor to reveal a glint of metal. "Kind of a lack of assaultrons around here, but since I already knew what goes on their boards...I hand-made one." He slid a complex-looking sheet of metal with little decorative tabs, towers, and otherwise electronic doo-hickeys into the wooden counter for the man to inspect.

"Hm...well...you did a fine job...alright. I can only make one because of the lack of materials, but your...order will be ready by tomorrow at sundown." He smiled and pressed a button. A turret on the rooftop above him sounded out as it came to life. Its motors ran loudly as it turned back and forth. "See you tomorrow, Phoenix, Fenrir, Dragor." He nodded to each in turn and disappeared into the darkness of his building.

* * *

Nick inspected each detail carefully, as he always did. Bodies, everywhere. No doubt, it had been a massacre. His inner fan whirred quietly, speeding up occasionally as a new thought occurred with each observation. His hand hovered over a track mark.

"Assaultron...no, wrong shape. Boot? Looks like..." Whir whir "...size ten and a half. Blood. Not from the shoe. From something else...tracks are coming from there..." Whir whir whirrrr "...came from that collapsed building. The blood is from those two bodies. Someone was in a hurry." He stood and followed the clues.

His foot sloshed as it connected with a pool of blood. Disgusting, but he couldn't think of that now. Whirrrrr "So it was an assaultron?" He had found the body of the first victim. Well, he assumed first. It was sitting in K-L-EO's shop, no K-L-EO to be found, head fried off like an ant under a magnifying glass. Actually, that was quantifiably impossible, but still. The metaphor stands.

The whirring sped up suddenly. Had K-L-EO done all this? No, she loved this town, far more than anyone would know. She loved this town and her new life the way he, himself, loved his detective work. She technically *could* have done this, but she had no motive. Hm...

Unless...

Something must have happened with her circuits. He searched harder. Staring at each piece of rubble, inspecting it closely. It was a good process, tedious, which turned up something interesting. Among the dead bodies were everyone *except* Daisy and Hancock. And among a taller pile of rubble was a long indentation as though something heavy had rolled down the hill. At the top was a half-covered red wire. A connector wire. If removed, an assaultron automatically enters its 'mechanic repair' sleep. This was a unique way to preserve the assaultron's delicate information in its drive while it waited for repairs to its (presumably) damaged body. It would disconnect automatically if it wasn't totally destroyed in a fight.

However, this one was torn off. The wire was stripped at both ends. It was an ugly sight for the robotic sore eyes. He winced, thinking of his own delicate mechanics.

He figured after he had reviewed the case opening with Ellie, she might go straight to Piper. She was always looking out for the girl like that. Probably reminded Ellie of her late sister, no doubt. Might as well head straight for the writer's abode with the gory details. He was sure she would love it, even if he wasn't enjoying it himself.

It was eery, this case.

* * *

Piper scribbled furiously. After catching up with Ellie about all the late happenings – who's wearing what, the newest hairstyles from the upper stands, Myrna accusing old Cronin of being a synth – she finally got down the business. Ellie didn't have much for Piper to work with.

"-so the guard lifted his sniper rifle and aimed, trying to get a better view. Said he's never seen anything so ominous in his life."

"That's a spook, if I ever heard one...hey, Elles, you think the Institute finally targeted Goodneighbor or what? Sounds like somethin' big went down...like...Institute big..." She trailed off, jotting down a few short words before looking back up at the brunette.

"No, doesn't seem likely. If the Institute wanted to use an assaultron's laser to destroy something, I assume they would target us." Piper gulped. She was thankful Nat wasn't awake to hear that. The girl had fallen asleep, head soundly nestled in Ellie's lap. This was the only innocent moment as the air thickened between them. Her stomach dropped at the thought of a deadly robot attacking the city. A robot possibly more deadly than a synth, anyway. "Besides, don't you have that theory that the mayor's balls-deep in Institute business?"

Piper shrugged. "Yeah...just doesn't sit right with me..."

The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes, lost on morbid thought. Finally, Ellie made a move to collect Nat. Piper set down her notepad and helped lift the ten year old girl. Together, they deposited her onto her bed and returned to the living room. Piper stretched and smiled weakly. "Hey, can I get ya somethin'? I didn't even offer when you came in."

Ellie rested her arm on the back of the couch and relaxed. "Ah, no, thank you. I think I've taken enough of your time, and hospitality. I oughta head back to the agency now. Thank you for your time." She rose to leave.

"N-no, thank you!" Piper grinned and rushed to the door. "You've been a huge help! Again, thank you. Just keep me updated, okay?" Ellie nodded, adding a short note that she would return with some parts for that generator soon. Ellie walked somberly back to the small studio her and Valentine shared as Piper, herself, went over the details in her mind.

Something about this wasn't right. It was very, very wrong.

* * *

"Hehehe...haha...ahahahahahaha!" Arianna laughed loudly as a rifle barrel was shoved into her barely clad chest.

"Oh, baby, yer gunna look real nice sittin' purty underneath me."A thick southern drawl dripped from the raider's lips as he threatened her. She merely grinned back, a dangerous look in her eyes that he didn't catch. His mistake, she decided.

She had gone into the camp alone. She was all the three had needed to clear it. She immediately surrendered. Truly, she enjoyed being submissive when it came to men. Kinda turned her on. Good fantasy fuel. However, Jonathan noted that they needed to hurry with this one, since Dylon was getting kinda hungry and tired. Being the most delicate and scrawny - not to mention youngest - of the three, the two elders were undeniably protective of him. She could masturbate to the thought of knifing this raider up the ass later.

"Oh, no, p-please don't hurt me!" She pleaded sarcastically, wiggling her hips. He had removed her shirt, leaving her chest uncovered save for a lacy bra. Very nice touch, she had decided when she found it at an old department store. Didn't find too many A-to-C cup pushup bras these days. She needed all the help she could get as far as her looks go these days. She was just glad they hadn't removed her pants, yet. That always earned a-

Well shit, there it was. The surprised yelp. The raider unzipped her pants and shirked them down, reaching for his own when he noticed the wires and lights adorning her left thigh. She still needed to buy more flesh.

"Y-y-yer a fuckin' synth?!" He aimed his rifle at her face. This was her cue, it seemed. She rolled and wiggled up since he had freed her legs when attempting to rape her.

"Gen-3 and proud, love!" She grinned and made quick work of untying her hands from behind her back, rolling and wiggling as the foolish raider attempted to shoot her. Her pants were next. She yanked them up, zipping them back, buttoning the clasp, and finally rolling toward him. He screamed a girlish scream, which was cut short when she punched him in the nose. It, naturally, killed him on impact. Her previous life had reminded her that when hit with enough force at the right angle, the cartilage in the nose would shoot upward into someone's brain. It worked.

The raider's eyes rolled into the back of his skull and he slumped forward, slamming face-first into the wooden floor. She giggled and danced a jig out of the room. In her previous life, she had always loved dancing. This was a personality trait that stuck with her this time around. She smiled and made quick work of literally ripping out the throats of every raider in the camp.

"Should have just broken their necks. Now we have to dump the bodies before bloatflies emerge to pick off the corpses." Jonathan emerged from the shadows, Dylon safely in front so the giant could watch him carefully.

"Eh...alright, ya got a point..." The synth frowned and scratched under her bra on the side. "Kinda wish this flesh had no sensors sometimes. I could smell that guy's breath and UGH IT WAS GROSS. Plus, without a shirt on, this wind is spoopy and chilly."

"Don't use pre-war meme terms. I fucking hate those."

"You fucking hate everything. Ya got an extra shirt? Mine got torn."

"Shouldn't have wasted your time and gotten your shirt ripped." A deathly glare was shared between them as neither wanted to back down. They heard faint buzzing and a quiet whine from the young ghoul, and finally sighed. The showdown would have to wait, the corpses needed tending to right then and there.


	4. Fighting Overload

"-y'see, he wasn't totally a dick, though. You would have thought that, but the guy jumped the gun too fast, tried to sell too hard. That was his real downfall. Anyway, long story short is that dude had a HUGE gun and I wanted it. But I didn't have the caps. That was when it hit m-"

"Phoenix, SHUT the FUCK. UP!" A raider snarled at her. You wouldn't have recognized Arianna save for her chipper voice. She was clad in stolen raider leathers, not that this troupe would have known. The mission was easy. Get into the middle of the raider lair, disable the turrets, signal Jonathan. She'd have to find a password on the leader and steal it from him since she was bad with computers. Huh, ironic.

None suspected a thing from her, thinking she was just another rookie waiting to make their first kill. Their stupid asses would probably put her on night patrol, too. Fucking morons. The platoon she was travelling with almost all synchronically rolled their eyes at her and muttered disapprovals. Her ruse was working.

When the patrol finally stopped inside of an old diner repurposed into a hideaway, the gang all set their gear down. Arianna was fine as she was, having only a few choice knives and a .44 pistol to carry. "Boss is comin'." One lanky raider noted to his stout partner. As if cued, a hulking mass entered noisily, power armor wheezing with the effort. Arianna recognized instantly that the poor thing needed repairs. Good thing she needed him dead.

"You're late." He noted gruffly, voice aged. Ah...so he was at least in his sixties, if her sensors were processing that stereotyped vocal chord correctly. This would be easier than she thought.

"Sorry, boss! We got a little tied up with a pack of fer'l mutts on the way up!" Ari piped up. "Got 'em good though!" She smiled widely, staring intently into the now enraged leader's eyes.

"Who the fuck are you?" She grumbled into her face, breath smelling of smoke and halitosis.

"Wanna find out~?" She wiggled her eyebrows and rotated her hips just enough to allure his attention. He smirked and dismissed the rested guards to their duty stations. He then led the synth up to the higher level. Perfect position to throw him from the roof, she noted. After he stepped out his suit, she bolted like lightning. Her smallest – poisoned – knife found a home deep in his eye socket. Her other, slightly larger butcher's knife was lodged into his throat. Finally, her third knife, a bowie knife, became acquainted with his entrails. She silently allowed his leaking body to rest against the wooden deck and removed her knives one at a time.

She had fun fulfilling her fantasy from the previous night before making quick work of perusing and pilfering the deceased leader's items. The password was found quickly enough. A couple taps...and...there! The turrets shut down, earning several confused noises from outside. She grinned menacingly and leapt from the window.

This landed her into a junk fence accompanied by the lanky raider from before. What a shame. She looked straight in his eyes before ripping his jaw off. I mean, really, how DARE he try to scream for help? The signal, ofcourse, was to TOSS THE BODY OVER THE JUNK WALL. A perfectly discretionate action, and so perfectly natural. She felt alive. She felt so-

"Phoenix, catch!" Dylon was tossed up, whom she caught easily.

"Awright, Dragor, ya got about six minutes 'fore this place gets reinforcements!" She carried the boy into the room she had leapt from before, then set him in front of the terminal. He already knew the goal and worked like lightning. Good boy, always keeping their techs in checks. "Haha...checksy techsy..." She muttered to herself as she took post, guarding from potential gunfire.

Below them, a green blur caused massive explosions and painful death.

"Fenrir, if you wouldn't mind hurrying, I see lights dipping up and down on the horizon."

"Yeah, I'm getting it." The ghoul brushed her off with a wave of his hand. A few (thousand) more rapid taps, and he was in. A holotape popped out and he snatched it. The duo ran down the stairs and across the bloodied flaming courtyard, hand-in-hand. Well, really, more like hand-dragged-by-other-hand. Dylon raced to keep up when they heard potshots being fired. Jonathan took this as his cue to pick up the boy and synth and bolt – burst violently if you will – through the junk gate and away from the scene behind them.

"Ye-hah! Y'all are the best damned brothers on the face of this planet!" The synth girl squealed and squirmed happily. Well, also uncomfortably. Being sandwiched in super-man-meat isn't the most ideal proposition.

Dylon sighed, "Anything for you, Ari." A genuine smile crossed his face. "I hope you enjoy playing Neuro-Defenders 3000 on your new pip-boy tonight. We've got...what...three more hours until Gust promised it'd be done?"

"Should be..." She hopped down when they slowed to a stop. They were now two or three miles from the camp they had just left, far out of harm's way. "Wanna go take a look-see around the market to double-triple-quadruple check if there aint anymore gear we could want before movin' on up?"

"Yeah, just don't expect bottlecaps from me again." The mutant huffed at her. "You're a fucking mooch."

"You're a fucking parasite! Die, villain!" She unsheathed her bowie knife and stood as though they were to fence. The mutant unholstered a massive bastard sword from his back and took position.

Dylon sighed. Just another day in Dead Man's Valley, Georgia.

* * *

Hancock watched Daisy carefully as she slept close to K-L-EO. They had dodged raiders, super mutants, more raiders, fucking children with guns (who's kids are they anyway?!), yao guai, feral EVERYTHING, and more. They rested, now, just south of the Diamond City gate. Hancock had watched since dawn the next day for any sign of Valentine. He was beginning to lose hope.

He gripped his musket harder and hissed inwardly when he heard a crunch. More mutants? More animals? He didn't want to deal with this. He was tired from carrying extra weight and fighting literally all day. He cocked his gun and aimed for the door. A figure swept into the opening. He pulled the trigger and-

Shit, fuck, was he out of ammo?! Fuck fuck fuck fuck...

"Mayor Hancock? Thought you had died in town."

He could have cried if he weren't numbed by the double-dose of jet he had taken earlier. Hancock noislessly nodded and relaxed against the wall. With no fire to illuminate him, he hadn't recognized Valentine, but his piercing, glowing yellow eyes peered at him from under the fedora.

"You're lucky I didn't shoot ya'…"

"No, I'm lucky you had no ammo, friend. C'mon, I'll get you into the city, but you can't speak to anyone about it, under any circumstances, ever, got it?" He glared at the ghoul, a mutual trust being acknowledged between them, and peered at the heaping mass in the corner.

"Thanks, man, just...I can't really accept. Y'see, K-L-EO, she-"

"I already know. Your obliterated town is my current case. Bring her anyway; she's in stand-by mode, and can't reactivate until she receives maintenance." The synth easily hoisted the deadly bot into her resident wheelbarrow, then covered her with a sheet. "Alright, put on these bandanas, and follow my lead."

Getting up to the gate was easy. Hancock awoke Daisy, ordered her to remain perfectly silent about this whole busniess, got her cover tied onto her face, and they formed a 'caravan'. Nick identified himself, then insisted they be allowed through. Something about evidence, and needing to solve the case. The guards wouldn't budge until nick pointed out that any remaining family or people (the guards were unaware of the actual state of the town) would immediately come en masse to Diamond City. Therefore, he concluded, the guards wanted to help him not hurt him. They ought to recognize when a case would affect them, right? Damn Valentine and his silver tongue were good. Real good. Too good.

Yeah, now they had guard company to Valentine's agency. He shooed them away and got the wheelbarrow inside – with effort and perspiration ofcourse. This was when he truly began to examine K-L-EO. Sure enough, the back of her head looked tampered with. Someone had somehow managed to – without her knowing – slide the compartment cover to her delicate wiring out of place just enough to expose her sensory wire.

This led to a malfunction in identifying friend from foe. Nick sighed and clenched his fist. What sick bastard would do this? To K-L-EO of all people? He tilted her heavy head back up and felt around. He had to push the panel completely back, but he found it, her drive port.

This was the assaultron equivalent of a synth component. It held all commands, orders, functions, and otherwise 'extra' software that would have made K-L-EO, well...K-L-EO. It, ofcourse, came in the form of a nifty little holotape. The holotape was unlabelled, but worn. However, still in perfect running condition. Nick sat down at his seat with a heavy sigh.

"Well, we've gotten 'K-L-EO' out of K-L-EO. Any alternate bodies? They have to be undamaged. Any sort of damage will send the personality back into wack." He looked to Daisy and Hancock for their opinions. Ellie still hadn't returned, though he sort of wish she had. She would have had a clever idea. "Otherwise, I'm gonna bunk you up in Kellog's old shack up the way. No one will look for you there."

"I like that plan better." Daisy stated quietly. She seemed distant, lost in thought. "Can we go now? I don't wanna get kicked out of Diamond City twice."


End file.
